iron-lore posts

Grim Dawn is a game we have been keeping an eye out on for some time. The action-RPG comes from indie developer Crate Entertainment, made up of team members from the now defunct studio Iron Lore, makers of Titan Quest. This week Crate Entertainment released the first combat gameplay footage from Grim Dawn.

The trailer, which you can check out after the jump, shows off some fast paced combat along with some impressive ragdoll physics, some magic spell effects and more. The game is still in pre-alpha and according to what Crate Entertainment's Arthur Bruno told Big Download today the game is still a ways away from release, saying, "We have a lot of world and quest building ahead of us."

Publisher THQ's week of daily sales via Steam is continuing today with big price cuts on a game that was considered to be a sales failure at first but has since supposedly sold over a million copies.

From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday you can download and purchase the fantasy action-RPG Titan Quest from the now defunct developer Iron Lore for just $3.74. You can also get the game's expansion pack, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, for $3.74 or get both for just $4.99. While Iron Lore shut down several months after the release of Immortal Throne, a few of the company's former team members have formed Crate Entertainment and are currently making their own action-RPG.Grim Dawn.

In 2008, developer Iron Lore closed its doors, despite releasing the acclaimed fantasy action-RPG Titan Quest, its expansion pack Immortal Throne and completing work on the stand alone expansion pack Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War Soulstorm, all for publisher THQ. However members from Iron Lore picked themselved up and reformed as Crate Entertainment. Licensing the rights to Iron Lore's game engine and projects, the developer has been working for some time on its first release, a new action-RPG title called Grim Dawn that will be released via digital download for the PC.

The developer is currently taking pre-orders for Grim Dawn but will it be a game worth your time and money? Big Download got Crate Entertainment's co-founder Arthur Bruno to give us more info about his company and Grim Dawn. He also gives us an inside look at the demise of Iron Lore, reveals the real sales figures for Titan Quest and more.

A while back a new game start up called Crate Entertainment revealed its presence. Made up of former members of the now defunct Iron Lore developer (makers of Titan Quest) the new company got the rights to use the technology developed by Iron Lore to make an all new action-RPG.

Now the company has revealed the first details on that game, titled Grim Dawn. The fantasy-themed game is set on the world of Cairn where two massive forces are fighting each other with the human race caught in the middle. Grim Dawn is suppose to give players access to five skill trees, a crafting system to make new item, support for multiplayer and more. The game is still early in production (there are no in-game screenshots yet) but Grim Dawn is currently set for a digital download release for early 2011.

Valve's Steam download unit can be full of surprises. Today the service launched a special sale of a number of THQ-published games, one per day until Friday (and that sale will last the entire weekend). Today THQ has put the Titan Quest line-up of games on sale for 50 percent off.

That means you can get the fantasy action-RPG (released in June 2007) from the now defunct developer Iron Lore for just $9.99 or its expansion pack The Immortal Throne for another $9.99. Or if you don't have either game can get both in a bundle for just . . . $9.99. This deal last until around 12 noon ET on Steam and then they will switch over to another THQ sales deal.

Early in 2009 it was announced that two former members of the now defunct PC game developer Iron Lore had formed a new company called Crate Entertainment. They also bought the rights to two of Iron Lore's projects including a console action-RPG called Black Legion.

However a funny thing happened while Crate tried to shop their game around to publishers: the current economic crisis. In a new chat at Gamasutra, company co-founder Arthur Bruno admitted, "We were looking for funding on a risky venture at a time when the U.S. was in financial crisis and the world economy was destabilized." So Black Legion was shelved and the team began work on a PC-based action-RPG using the same engine that Iron Lore created for its game Titan Quest. The unnamed game will likely be digitally distributed only with Bruno stating, "I think we've reached a point in the PC market with digital distribution where it is possible for a small developer to be profitable catering to a relatively niche audience." No other details about the game were revealed.

Just about a year ago, Boston based game developer Iron Lore closed its doors. It received praised for its products including its debut game, the action-RPG Titan Quest. However the company failed to get funding for upcoming projects it had been developing.

Now two former Iron Lore team members have announced they have bought the rights to two of Iron Lore's unfinished game projects and have formed Crate Entertainment to get these projects on the right track. Iron Lore's lead designer Arthur Bruno and artist Eric Campanella are currently working on the projects in the offices of Demiurge Studios. A feature article on Crate Entertainment at the Journal of New England Technology web site reveals that one of the two projects is yet another fantasy action-RPG called Black Legion. The game is currently being shopped around to publishers.

Everyone knows that even in the best of economic times, people and companies can still go bankrupt. We have remarked in the past few months that there has been a rash of game development studios shutting down their doors even as the industry itself has been declared as "recession free" by many analysts. So why is this happening. Gamespot has a lengthy feature article that looks at the issue.

The article chats with members of the now closed down PC game developer Iron Lore who created Titan Quest and its expansion for THQ. The company had a new $20 million game they were pitching to publishers but were unable to secure a deal before they ran out of cash. The company's now former president Jeff Goodsill admitted they could have kept the lights on if they had done things differently, saying, "We should have been looking at different areas, not just for contract work, but for full products. . . " The article also looks at Wideload Games' approach which is to have a small full time team but out-source a large amount of their work on games to freelancers. However the article claims that at the moment it's a seller's market if you are a game developer; there are still lots of studios hiring so even if you get laid off there's still plenty of jobs available.